SheEO, female entrepreneur support organisation, venturing into India

The goal is to take the model city by city till they have a million women and by 2020 about $1 billion every year going into the hands of 10,000 females.Rica Bhattacharyya | ET Bureau | Updated: July 29, 2016, 14:42 IST

SheEO, a Toronto-based female entrepreneur support organisation, is venturing into India, roping in investors to fund startups run and owned by women.

The model calls upon 1,000 women per city to commit $1,000 (Rs 67,000) each to provide low-interest loans to 10 women-led ventures that are selected by the 1,000 women. The ventures get loans and access to women's networks, buying power and expertise to expand. This model will be in 1,000 cities by 2020.

"The idea is to support under-supported and under-financed women entrepreneurs. In addition to the low-interest loan, the women get access to the 1,000 women network, expertise and their buying power to help grow their business," said Vicki Saunders, founder of SheEO, who is visiting Mumbai to talk to women investors from India who have expressed interest in the initiative.

The goal is to take the model and scale it city by city till they have a million women and by 2020 about $1 billion every year going into the hands of 10,000 female entrepreneurs around the world.

"It is taking this new model of crowdfunding but also we have moved from singular, one-entity companies to a much more dispersed organisation," said Saunders, who was recently named one of the 100 most influential leaders of 2015 from EBW - Empowering A Billion Women, alongside Marissa Mayer, Melinda Gates, Sheryl Sandberg and Michelle Obama.

"Women weren't really at the table to design it in the first round, so we need more women now and for that we need new models and new approaches," she said.

After doing a pilot in Canada starting July 2015, SheEO is now looking at 100 communities across the world to replicate the model.

This year it is scaling up in India and three US cities – San Francisco, Los Angeles and Colorado — and in 2017, it will expand more rapidly.

SheEO is also launching an online community so that women can connect with each other — with not just the 1,000 women in one community but with all other communities as well, making it a marketplace for investors.

"One of the things we are already finding is women who are reluctant to be investors because they feel it is very risky can now start with $1,000. It's like dipping your toe in the water — you try it and as they build a relationship with these companies, they might want to take the engagement even further," said Saunders, who has founded five companies.

The companies that it will invest in will be revenue-generating businesses that have at least $50,000 and up to $2 million in revenue and are women-owned and women-led.

"In general, we feel that they can pay these loans back and we are looking for microfinance-type rates. We want everyone to pay their money back. The goal is after five years in each community we will have a perpetual loan fund," said Saunders.

"The design that we have come up with is democratising venture capital. But it has nothing to do with gender. We are starting with women because this is a passion area for me but the same model could be used for men too," said Saunders.

Saunders feels that venture capital the way it is now is really broken. "We have a venture model where nine out of 10 companies we invest in fail and we think that is a success. But women would not design a system where nine out of 10 would fail," she said.